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Tuesday, June 03, 2014

NPR; Not Such Neutral Reporting on Common Core

NPR has been getting dollars (a la the Seattle Times) for education reporting from the Gates Foundation. And boy, does it show in their Common Core reporting.

First, their FAQs on Common Core read a lot like what comes from Gates. Two, they even have one FAQ "fact" wrong which is that Oklahoma has a bill going thru its Legislature to walk away from CC. The fact is that the bill passed both houses of their Legislature and has been sitting on their Governor's desk for about a week. (She has the choice to sign it into law, wait until the time period to sign runs out and it automatically becomes law or veto it.)

This morning they had a piece on how most states are nowhere near ready for CC because the curriculum (books and teaching materials) are not ready. (This is true but that's certainly not the only implementation problem.

What I find troubling is the subtle insertion of editorializing in these pieces. I'm not sure I even mind the skewing of the pieces to support CC but I do mind when a reporter states a "fact" without any back up.

For example,

"This isn't about the standards. It's about how they've been implemented."

That's what the reporter, Cory Turner, said. If he had done any homework, he would have mentioned that there are huge concerns over BOTH the standards and their implementation. So there's that "it's a done deal" talk and it's really about implementation.

"They aren't federal. Washington's not on the hook here. States are."

He's either being naive or disingenuous. No, these are not "federal" standards but woe to the state
who turns them down as Arne Duncan has used a heavy funding stick to get
states to sign on via Race to the Top and other funding.

"Governors signed on — Democrats and Republicans alike — because they saw something necessary and ambitious. And implementing ambitious is never easy."

He said this with NO citation. How does he know this is what all the governors who signed on think? If you don't cite a source, then it's your opinion.

And the comments (seemingly mostly from teachers) are interesting reading.Math Class

My district adopted the Pearson(math) text last year. We had a large
amount of money given to us to contract with a textbook company for
several years. We met with the four big publishers to review their
material and were very disappointed. We said we didn't feel like any of
them were very good and suggested we wait to commit until the
curriculum developed more--but we were told if we didn't spend the money
we would loose it.

Pearson won the bid because they said they
would work with us on modifying the materials to fit what we want.
We've been complaining to our district all year now how the Pearson
books don't align to the core very well, but Pearson hasn't done
anything more than rearrange chapters. They got our money now, that's
all they wanted I guess. The worst part is that our district INSISTS we
use the expensive books we bought--even though they are crap!

RalphAbsolutely correct, Kates. In our district, the cost of reading
materials - not including update subscriptions - for grades 3, 4 & 5
is over $250,000. Someone is getting rich from the massive switch in
educational materials necessitated by the switch to Common Core. A
shame some of the textbooks and instructional aids from the NCLB
standards cannot be used for Common Core.

bikerriderMy reality now is that the CC is here and has to be taught. I don't like
them, but in reading them over and over I find that I can align what I
do in the classroom to meet the standards for my grades and subjects (I
teach two) with some re-adjusting and then creating other materials. I'm
not a big heavy textbook kind of teacher--- they never go deep enough
to be worthwhile. The big issue as far as my experience goes, is how
they will be tested and how much they'll be worth. If the tests are
high-stakes then it's a national standardized test, if they're not high
stakes I promise you a significant percentage of students will not take
them seriously. That's the conundrum of education-- the meaningful
assessment where the students buy in as much as the adults.

4 comments:

robyn
said...

Last night while perusing the internet, a Microsoft Ad popped-up. It was all about schools, common core testing and why I should buy a new laptop to help my kids succeed in this new era of high stakes testing. I tried to find it today, but couldn't (I wanted to take a screen shot since it was so obnoxious, but didn't know how on the iPad).

I did find this: http://www.microsoft.com/education/ww/products/xpeos/pages/default.aspx

Education Acroynms

Advanced Learning - SPS' three-tier program for advanced learners. Made up of APP, Spectrum and ALOs. (Note: the name of the district program is "Advanced Learning Services and Programs" but these three programs fall under "Highly Capable Services" of AL Services and Programs.

ALO - Advanced Learning Opportunity, the third tier of SPS' Advanced Learning program

AP - Advanced Placement. A national program of college-level classes given in high schools.

APP - Accelerated Progress Program. One of the levels of the Advanced Learning Program. NOTE: the name of this program is now "HIGHLY CAPABLE COHORT." This change occurred in 2014.

ASB - Associated Student Body. High school leadership groups.

AYP - Adequate Yearly Progress. Part of NCLB.

BEX - Building Excellence. SPS' capital renovation/rebuilding program that is funded via the BEX levy. Every 3 years there is the Operations levy and either the BEX or BTA levies as those two levies rotate in six year cycles).

BLT - Building Leadership Team. Staff members at a school who meet regularly to discuss building issues.

BTA - Buildings, Technology, Academics. The major maintenance/other capital fund for SPS. Originally BTA was to cover major maintenance like HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning), roofs, waterlines, etc.) but now covers wide swaths of items like athletic fields, technology and funding academic needs.

CAICEE - Community Advisory Committee for Investing in Educational Excellence. Created by former Superintendent Manhas in 2008, to issue a report about reform recommendations for SPS.

CSIP - Continuous School Improvement Plan, the plan for improvement for each school as required by state law.

EOC - End of Course Assessments, given in math and science, required for high school graduationESEA - Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the federal law that governs education, includes the NCLB accountability provisions.

e-STEM or e-STEAM - STEM or STEAM curriculum with an environmental focus.

FACMAC - Facilities and Capacity Management Advisory Committee. A district committee comprises of an all-volunteer citizen group created in 2012 to help bring research and ideas to capacity management issues in the district.

FERPA - Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. A federal law that protects students' privacy

FRL - Free and reduced lunch.

FTE - Full Time Equivalent

FY - Fiscal Year

Highly Capable Services - NEW name (as of 2014) as umbrella name for these programs: Highly Capable Cohort (formerly APP), Spectrum and ALO (Advanced Learning Opportunities).

HSPE - High School Proficiency Exam, state assessment that replaced the WASL for 10th graders, required for graduation

HQT - Highly Qualified Teacher, a standard set by federal law

IA - Instructional Assistant

IB - International Baccalaureate program. An international program of advanced classes that can either be taken as stand alone or as part of an overall IB program.

IDEA - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The federal law that governs special education

MAP - Measures of Academic Progress. A computer-based adaptive assessment made by NWEA and originally purchased by the district for use as a district-wide formative assessment but now used for a wide variety of purposes.

MSP - Measurement of Student Progress, the state proficiency assessment that replaced the WASL for students in grades 1-8

MTSS - Multi-Tiered Systems of Support

NCLB - No Child Left Behind, a provision of the federal education law, ESEA, introduced during the George W. Bush administration